A new model of smooth K0-theory ([5] [1]) is constructed, with the help of the total Chern class (contrary to the theories considered in ]1], [5], [12] and [13] which use the Chern character). The correspondence with the earlier model [1] is obtained by adapting, at the level of transgression forms, the usual formulae which express the Chern character in terms of the Chern classes and vice versa.

The advantage of this new model is that it allows constructing Chern classes with values in integral Chern-Simons characters in a natural way: this construction answers a question asked by U. Bunke [4].

We construct explicit generators of the K-theory and K-homology of the coordinate algebras of ‘functions’ on the quantum projective spaces. We also sketch a construction of unbounded Fredholm modules, that is to say Diraclike operators and spectral triples of any positive real dimension.

For compact hyperbolic 3-manifolds we lift the Bloch invariant defined by Neumann and Yang to an integral class in K3(ℂ). Applying the Borel and the Bloch regulators, one gets back the volume and the Chern-Simons invariant of the manifold. We perform our constructions in stable homotopy theory, pushing a generalized orientation of the manifold directly into K-theory. On the way we give a purely homotopical construction of the Bloch-Wigner exact sequence which allows us to explain the ℚ/ℤ ambiguity that appears in the non-compact case.

The topic of this paper is the construction of a finite set of generators for a subgroup of finite index in the unit group u(ℤG) of the integral group ring of a finite group G. The present paper is a continuation of earlier research by Bass and Milnor, Jespers and Leal, and Ritter and Sehgal who constructed such generators provided that the group G does not have a non-abelian fixed-point free epimorphic image and the rational group algebra ℚG does not have simple epimorphic images that are two-by-two matrices over either the rationals, a quadratic imaginary extension of the rationals or a non-commutative division algebra. In this paper we allow simple images of the type M2(ℚ). We will do so by introducing new additional generators using Farey symbols, which are in one to one correspondence with fundamental polygons of congruence subgroups of PSL2(ℤ). Furthermore, for each simple Wedderburn component M2(ℚ) of ℚG, the new generators give a free subgroup that is embedded in M2(ℤ).

We define generalized Atiyah-Patodi-Singer boundary conditions of product type for Dirac operators associated to C*-vector bundles on the product of a compact manifold with boundary and a closed manifold. We prove a product formula for the K-theoretic index classes, which we use to generalize the product formula for the topological signature to higher signatures.

This paper presents, by example, an index theory appropriate to algebras without trace. Whilst we work exclusively with Cuntz algebras the exposition is designed to indicate how to develop a general theory. Our main result is an index theorem (formulated in terms of spectral flow) using a twisted cyclic cocycle where the twisting comes from the modular automorphism group for the canonical gauge action on each Cuntz algebra. We introduce a modified K1-group for each Cuntz algebra which has an index pairing with this twisted cocycle. This index pairing for Cuntz algebras has an interpretation in terms of Araki's notion of relative entropy.